Live images of Ted Haggard are shown on various monitors at his New Life Church in Colorado Springs. Haggard has revived the floundering National Association of Evangelicals, which represents about 30 million people.

Evangelical leader Ted Haggard, in a handout photo from the New Life Church, in September 2005.

Ted Haggard was fired for "sexual immorality." The church had no clear succession plan.

An executive staff member at New Life Church in Colorado Springs has resigned after admitting to sexual misconduct and other mistakes – the result of an examination of the staff’s moral makeup after the ouster of senior pastor Ted Haggard, a church official said Sunday.

Christopher Beard, who headed a ministry that trained young adults in leadership skills, stepped down Friday after admitting to “a series of decisions displaying poor judgment, including one incident of sexual misconduct several years ago,” said Rob Brendle, an associate pastor at the 14,000- member church.

Citing confidentiality over personnel issues, Brendle would not discuss the nature of the sexual misconduct except to say it did not involve Haggard or a minor.

Beard, a New Life employee for nine years, was not married at the time of the incident but is now, Brendle said. Beard could not be reached for comment Sunday.

After Haggard’s fall in a drugs-and-gay- sex scandal last month, the senior leadership of New Life asked its outside board of overseers to take a closer look at the “spiritual character” of its 200-member staff as a precaution. Brendle said Beard’s disclosures came during a meeting with the board, which is made up of four pastors from other congregations.

Brendle said Beard’s resignation was voluntary and is another step toward making sure the “disordered moral life” demonstrated in Haggard’s fall is “excised from the church.”

“We recognize there will be increased scrutiny of our church in the wake of the scandal,” Brendle said. “We welcome that process in order to reinforce the high standard of personal integrity and morality that has characterized New Life’s employees for 22 years.”

Before his resignation, Beard oversaw a church ministry called twentyfourseven, a nine-month training program for young adults in missionary work and leadership. He has led mission trips to 53 countries and had a role in this year’s church Easter drama.

In 2002, Beard was reprimanded by church officials after he staged a missionary training drill using fake assault weapons. A SWAT team was put on alert after a passing motorist thought the guns were real. Brendle said that incident played a role in Beard’s departure.

Beard’s church biography states he has a business degree from Oral Roberts University – Haggard’s alma mater – and a master’s degree in Christian counseling. He previously worked as a psychotherapist at a leading mental institution, the biography states.

Haggard, 50, resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals and was fired from his pulpit after a Denver male prostitute alleged a three-year relationship with the minister and claimed Haggard used methamphetamine.

Haggard confessed to undisclosed “sexual immorality” and admitted buying meth but said he never used the drug.

Haggard and his wife, Gayle, are undergoing three weeks of counseling at an undisclosed outpatient treatment center in Arizona.

Today, one out of every three men imprisoned in Colorado -- and four out of every five women inmates -- say they have some type of moderate to critical mental health need, according to the Colorado Department of Corrections. The number of inmates with mental health needs in Colorado's prisons has steadily risen in the past two decades.

Maybe you've got plans to camp this weekend (just watch out for the mud and, er, snow up there), go for a hike or maybe you just want to lounge by the pool and kick it. Unfortunately, Mother Nature doesn't always necessarily cooperate.